Soldiers under fire

I WAS saddened to read comments concerning the Parachute regiment and their actions on January 30, 1972, known as Bloody Sunday (Letters).

Unless you have served in the Army and had the unnerving task of carrying out foot patrols in Belfast or Londonderry at the height of the Troubles, you have no right to condemn the actions of the paratroopers on that terrible day.

I was stationed in Andersonstown at the time of the killings and our battery had suffered two months of almost constant attacks.

Shootings and riots were an almost everyday occurrence.

It was because of outbreaks of violence at previous so- called civil rights rallies that the January 30 march in Londonderry was banned.

The Army and police warned the organisers they would bring a stop to the march at a time and place of their choosing if it went ahead, but this was ignored.

Inevitably, rioting broke out. The deaths that day of 13 protesters was truly tragic, but no soldier deliberately set out to murder civilians.

For the soldier, urban warfare is the worst possible kind of fighting to carry out. Unlike ‘proper’ wars, our enemy did not wear a uniform; they looked just like anyone else going about their daily lives.

The Provisional IRA were adept at using civilians to screen their activities from the view of the soldiers. You only have seconds to make a judgment on what you should do — time could cost you or your comrades their lives.

The only people guilty of murder in Northern Ireland were the members of the Protestant and Catholic terrorist groups who set out to butcher their own people because of their religious persuasion.

For the sake of the so-called peace process, they are largely left unpunished. Meanwhile, Army veterans are being hounded for decisions they made 47 years ago.

STEVE CORBETT, address supplied.